A Time of Choice
by SamanthaKathy
Summary: Sirius is released from St. Mungo's and wants custody of Harry back, will Severus be able to stay in Harry's life? Also, S.I.M.'s new plan could end up being more dangerous than any of them assumed. Third in the Time series, sequel to OPT. *ABANDONED*
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **

**I've been asked a couple of questions a lot, so I decided it's time for an author's note. First about whether or not this will turn into slash, and specifically into Severus/Harry slash. Yes, this series will eventually be slash. No, it will **_**not**_** be a Harry/Severus pairing, they will remain on a strict mentor-child relationship. And, since several people wanted to know, there will be seven stories in this series.**

**This is not beta read. The next update will be in February. I am aiming for regular updates of one new chapter a month.**

Chapter one: Summer of Hope

Harry's summer so far had been great. It had gotten off to a marvelous, if somewhat unexpected start when Dumbledore had awarded him the points that won Slytherin the House Cup. It had resulted in a party with Harry as the center of attention, all of it good attention. Evidently, with the points he'd won, everyone had decided to forget they were angry at him. Flint had even offered him his position on the Quidditch team back.

Harry had told him he'd think about it, and he would, but he honestly didn't think he'd go back on the team. He now had two Horcruxes in his possession and Severus had the third one, but that still left three others. They were out of his reach for now, but that didn't mean he couldn't prepare. S.I.M. was going to take up even more of his time and he already had his extra lessons in Potions and Defense. As much as he liked Quidditch, it just wasn't that important this time around.

But aside from the fact that the whole House had accepted him back, Harry was mainly overjoyed with the points because it meant that Draco wouldn't be punished as severely. He was under no illusions that Draco would escape punishment completely, but winning the House Cup would at least help.

At home with Severus, the summer had been just perfect. Severus had not only backed up S.I.M.'s plan, but had even helped with keeping their involvement with the book a secret. He'd gotten it approved by the board and despite all of the pressure he knew they put Severus under, he hadn't given Harry and his friends up as the authors. Lucius might suspect, given that Draco had subtly told his father it would be in the best interest of the Wizarding World to support Severus' proposal to the board, but Harry doubted Lucius would pursue it. The book was, after all, just one more step in what he considered the right direction.

Aside from their plan to provide Muggleborns with more information, Harry's summer had been ordinary and without any excitement. He'd been reveling in the feeling of being a completely normal kid for once. And in a week's time, he'd be back at Hogwarts for a blissfully normal year.

Of course, he should have known it wouldn't last. While last summer, which had started out similarly idyllic, had been rudely interrupted by Sirius' mental problems, this summer was interrupted by something even worse. Namely the appearance of one house-elf, who was a familiar sight with his bloodshot eyes and aged appearance, exacerbated by the white hair growing out of his bat-like ears.

"Kreacher!" Harry hissed.

It had been many years since Harry had last seen the house-elf who was now standing in his room at Spinner's End, but there was no mistaking his identity. In the previous timeline, Harry had hated Kreacher with a passion for his betrayal of Sirius. He had not been sorry at all when he'd learned that Remus had killed the house-elf in a fit of raging grief a couple of months into his sixth year at Hogwarts.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Kreacher has come to serve Master."

"I'm not your Master," Harry said confused. "Sirius Black is."

"No, filthy blood traitor is not Kreacher's Master," Kreacher crowed triumphantly. "Kreacher was surprised, yes, yes, he was. Not happy , no, not happy, to have nasty brat, friend of mudbloods and blood-traitors alike, as Master."

Harry stilled in abject horror as he realized what Kreacher meant. After Sirius' death, he'd become Kreacher's Master. Whatever magic Hermione's ritual had used to sent him to the past must not have fooled the house-elf's magic. Kreacher was still bound to him, not to Sirius. Harry sat down on the bed with a groan. Just what he needed, a deranged house-elf who hated him but was forced to serve him. How was he going to explain that to Severus?

"Kreacher was bad," the house-elf said, drawing Harry's attention back to him. "Kreacher spied on Master. Very bad, yes, very bad. But Kreacher saw! Kreacher saw Master in great house of snakes, friends with great wizards like young Malfoy. Kreacher is happy to serve Master!"

Harry blinked in surprise. While it was creepy that Kreacher had apparently spied on him – and for how long, Harry had to ask himself – he was glad Kreacher liked him now. Perhaps that would keep the house-elf from doing something disastrous later on. Slowly, a plan began to form in his mind. Perhaps, once he'd ascertained the location and protections of the last three Horcruxes, he could use Kreacher to retrieve them.

"Does Sirius know he's not your master?" Harry asked.

"Filthy blood-traitor thinks Kreacher is dead," the house-elf spat out.

"Good," Harry said, glad there were no added complications like explaining how he'd become Kreacher's master. "Keep it that way. Do you have somewhere to stay where no one will know you're there?"

Kreacher nodded. Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He had no idea what to do with Kreacher for now, so it was good the house-elf could keep himself hidden.

"Good, I don't want anyone to know you're still alive," Harry said. "I have plans and I can't have anyone questioning me about you. Keep yourself hidden for now."

"Kreacher lives to serve," the house-elf said.

With that statement, Kreacher popped away. And just in time too, as Severus knocked on Harry's door and opened it.

"You ready to go?" he asked.

Harry nodded and grabbed his cloak from the nearby chair. As he followed Severus down to Floo to Diagon Alley, he wondered if Kreacher showing up today of all days was some sort of sign. They were meeting the Malfoys in Diagon Alley, just like last year, but this year they would also meet Hermione and her parents. Harry hadn't seen the problem before, but he'd completely forgotten that with Lucius Malfoy there, Draco couldn't exactly be friendly to Hermione.

Suddenly, he felt a bit nauseous at the thought of the day ahead of him. Filled with dread at having to be the go-between his friends, he followed Severus through the Floo. At the other end, a hand steadied him and a softly spoken spell removed the soot from his robes before Harry had even gotten his bearings back. He smiled up at Severus in thanks, which was acknowledges with a small dip of the man's head.

A few moments later, the two of them had met up with Hermione and her slightly wide-eyed parents in front of Flourish and Blotts. Greetings were exchanged, but before anything else could be said, Harry saw Lucius and Draco approaching. Harry let his eyes take the two wizards in. Draco was moving easily, which was a great relief. Lucius however was ever so slightly favoring his left side when he was walking. Only because he was looking for it did Harry notice it. He wondered how much practice Lucius had in acting normal while hiding injuries.

Not for the first time, Harry wondered if it might be possible to prevent Draco's father from returning to Voldemort. He had no intention of letting Voldemort loose on the Wizarding World this time, so perhaps he could save the man. But then Lucius' eyes fell upon Hermione's parents and Harry saw the grimace of distaste that graced the man's face for a moment before being covered up with the usual bland mask of politeness. Harry's visions of a perfect future for him and his friends shattered under the evidence that whatever home life the man might have, he did prescribe to the Pureblood superiority views of Voldemort.

"Lucius, Draco" Severus greeted the pair as they reached the group.

"Severus, Harry, Miss Granger," Lucius said. "And you must be Miss Granger's parents."

"Mom, Dad, this is Mister Malfoy, Draco's father," Hermione said.

She shot a nervous look at Harry and Draco, but Lucius was the epitome of polite, even going as far as shaking Mr. and Mrs. Granger's hands. Harry wondered why the man was making such an effort. He got the chance to ask as the adults consented to meeting up with the children in two hours time at the bookshop and let them go off on their own.

"I hadn't expected your father to be so polite to two Muggles," Harry remarked as soon as they were out of earshot.

"He normally wouldn't be," Draco acknowledged. "He hates that Muggles have access to Diagon Alley. But he thinks Hermione has potential, so he's willing to be polite."

"He said I had potential?" Hermione asked.

Draco nodded, eliciting a huge grin from Hermione. Harry just breathed a sigh of relief. If Lucius Malfoy thought Hermione had potential, it would be less likely that she would be targeted specifically in the war, nor would Draco be punished for being friends with her. At least, not by his father. Harry figured that Narcissa wouldn't need Hermione as a reason, so it mattered little in that aspect.

The trio went to Madam Malkin's first, as all of them had grown enough to need new Hogwarts robes. Harry nipped into Eeylops Owl Emporium to buy owl treats for Hedwig, while Draco and Hermione went across the street for some extra parchment and in Draco's case a new ever-ink quill, much to Hermione's envy.

Harry was done before his friends and leisurely made his way over to Scribbulus, only to stop dead in his tracks in front of the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies. There, in all its glory was the Firebolt displayed. The streamlined handle of ash, treated with a diamond-hard polish, which Harry knew from experience was difficult to keep up, gleamed in the sunlight. The vision it made brought back many memories. Those few weeks spent in Diagon Alley before his third year, meeting Sirius, but also loosing Sirius, both last time and this time. For while Sirius was still alive, he was just as much out of reach as when he'd been dead.

"Cool, isn't it?" Draco said.

Harry looked up, startled by the appearance of his friends. Mechanically he nodded. Yes, it was a very cool broom. It flew like a dream and the sentimental value he'd gotten out of it because it was a gift from Sirius for him had been enormous. But then he remembered the Nimbus 2001, presented to him by Severus, who always had his back. With a smile, he turned away from the window.

"Yes, very cool," he said. "But I'm happy with the broom I've got now."

Draco sighed.

"You sound like Dad," he said mournfully.

Harry laughed as Hermione began to lecture Draco on not throwing away perfectly good stuff just because he could afford to buy the newer version. Behind the girl's back, Draco rolled his eyes, but he also sported a grin.

Together they walked into Flourish and Blotts. They were early and none of their parents were there yet, so they set out to gather their books. While Hermione and Draco were looking in horror at the cage full of viscously biting books. Harry bypassed it with a grin, as Hagrid had already sent him the book he'd assigned the Care of Magical Creatures class. He could see the humor in it this time, as he actually knew how to calm the book down. But in the interest of preserving the timeline, and perhaps more than a little bit of Marauder spirit, he decided not to inform his friends just yet about that particular trick.

Harry quickly gathered the books for his classes, giving most of them just a glance. Only _Numerology and Gramatica_ held his interest. He'd seen Hermione with this book quite frequently, but as he'd never had any interest in Arithmancy he had never looked at it before. He was feeling kind of excited about taking a class he hadn't in the original timeline, as it meant he would actually learn something new. Classes could get rather boring, even though he still had to apply himself, which he'd never truly done before.

"You've got everything?" Hermione asked.

"Yes, just picked up the last book on the list," Harry said. "How about you?"

"I've got everything now," Hermione said, as she grabbed her own copy of the Arithmancy textbook. "The Ancient Rune book looks really interesting. I stopped in the Muggle Studies section and you were right, the information in the books is nothing I don't already know and most of it is wrong or out of date. And there's absolutely nothing about cultural differences!"

"Relax, Hermione," Harry said, cutting off the rant he knew was coming. "Like we promised, we'll deal with Muggle and Wizarding Studies this year, remember. Now, any sign of our parents yet, or do we still have time to browse?"

Merlin, it felt weird to refer to Severus as his parent, but Harry figured since the Potions Master was now his guardian for the foreseeable future, it was technically correct. Besides, the man did a better job than any other guardian he'd ever had, so if anyone deserved the epithet, it was him.

"No, no sign yet," Hermione said. "Have you seen Draco?"

"I saw him over in the Quidditch section," Harry said.

Hermione rolled her eyes, which caused Harry to grin. He left Hermione as she began browsing the Arithmancy section, recalling her love for the subject. He just hoped that this time around she wouldn't be forced to use her knowledge of the subject to put up wards and devise offensive spells for use in an all-out war.

Harry aimlessly wandered through the bookstore, pulling out an interesting looking book here and there, but nothing really held his attention. Then he happened upon the Divination section, where he saw Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil excitedly pouring over a copy of _Unfogging the Future_. Their giggles made Harry exceedingly glad he hadn't signed up for Trelawney's class. And after hearing all of the bad things about Divination and Trelawny from both Draco and Harry, even Hermione had elected not to choose that class. She wouldn't even need the time-turner this time around, for which Harry was glad. It had taken a huge toll on Hermione in the original timeline, even though Harry hadn't really seen it at the time.

"Harry, have you finished?"

Severus' voice pulled Harry out of his musings and he sheepishly looked at his guardian, who'd been trying to get his attention for some time, judging by the slightly impatient look on his face.

"Yeah, I've got everything," Harry said.

"Good, let's pay and get out of here then," Severus said. "I've had quite enough of shopping."

"Do we have to go home already?" Harry asked, disappointed at having to leave his friends already.

"I think we can find the time for some ice cream at Florean's," Severus said with a small smile.

Cheered by that suspect, Harry happily followed his guardian to the register. Yes, this holiday was shaping up to be the best ever.

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Two days before the end of the summer holidays, Severus sat Harry down in the living room after breakfast. His face was a blank mask and it set all of Harry's instincts off. Something was wrong, and his thoughts immediately flew to Theo and Draco. Draco had looked fine in Diagon Alley last week and Theo had written to him only a few days ago, sounding fine if not particularly happy. But Harry knew how fast something could go wrong, so it was with dread that he waited until Severus started talking.

"I received a letter from St. Mungo's at the end of the school year, informing me that Sirius Black had been transferred to short-term care and that they expected he'd be declared healthy within a few weeks," Severus said.

Harry's first inclination on hearing that was to get angry with Severus for not telling him right away. He even opened his mouth to say something. He had enough of secrets 'for his own good' to last several lifetimes. But the careful non-look on Severus' face made him close his mouth again and think over the statement. If St. Mungo's expected Sirius to be healthy in a few weeks, then shouldn't Sirius be released already? The message had been sent at the end of the school year, which was almost two months ago. Had something gone wrong? Or worse, did Sirius want nothing to do with Harry now that he'd realized that Harry was a Slytherin?

"But?" Harry asked, afraid of the answer yet still needing to know.

"There was a minor setback that delayed his final recovery with several more weeks," Severus said. "I hadn't told you because I didn't want to get your hopes up, just in case something like that happened. He's recovered now, though, and St. Mungo's feels they will be able to release him sometime next week. Since you'll be in school by then, I thought it better if you were to visit him now, should you wish that."

Ah, so Severus had noticed he hadn't liked not knowing about Sirius' transfer to short-term care. Harry couldn't think of any other reason Severus would explain why he hadn't told him sooner. And he had to admit, Severus was probably right. He would have been crushed if he'd thought Sirius was getting released, only to find out it was going to take several more weeks.

"If you want to visit him, you should get your cloak. I will not have time after today, with all the preparations and meetings for the start of the school year," Severus said.

Harry grinned, nodded, and jumped up to get his cloak. Sirius was better! He'd hardly dared to hope, after seeing just how delusional Sirius had been last time he'd visited, but Severus had been right. Sirius was better, Harry's decision to get him free from Azkaban hadn't been for nothing. This really was the best summer ever!

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Harry followed Severus through the corridors of St. Mungo's with a grin on his face. He had to suppress the urge to run, his eagerness to get to Sirius hard to contain. At last, Severus stopped at an open door to a small room. He gestured Harry inside, before following him.

Sirius was easily spotted, sitting on the bed near the window, watching the door. Evidently, he'd been expecting them. He looked good, more like the man Harry knew from his parent's wedding pictures than like the man he had in his memories of the original timeline. Harry hadn't ever realized just how bad Sirius still looked, even when he'd been at Grimmauld Place.

Sirius gave him an enthusiastic wave and a huge grin as Harry approached him. Severus stayed near the door, present but not intruding. Had Harry not been watching, he would have missed Sirius' quick look over to the man and the grimace of distaste that crossed his face. It was so reminiscent of the face Lucius Malfoy had pulled when seeing Hermione's parents that all of Harry's happiness faded away, leaving only nerves.

Harry took place on the chair next to Sirius' bed. Now that Sirius' attention was on him again, the happy grin was back on his godfather's face. Harry didn't know what to say, but luckily he didn't have to say anything. The weak grin he shot Sirius was enough to get him talking. Sirius apologized for his behavior and started asking him about his school year.

Slowly, the conversation progressed, carried out mostly by Sirius' enthusiastic recollections of his own school days whenever Harry stopped talking. It was clear that Sirius was no longer deluding himself into thinking Harry was James, or even like James. He knew very well that Harry was living with Severus, even asking him if the man was treating him right. He knew about Harry being Sorted into Slytherin as well. But none of it could lift Harry's spirits, because as the conversation continued, he was drawing some awful conclusions.

"And then we trounced Slytherin, even though they cheated their way through the match. So you see, Slytherins are always cheaters and always will be," Sirius said. "Oh, not you, of course, there's always exceptions to the rule," he quickly added with an apologetic look to Harry.

Harry just gave him a wan smile. Sirius kept saying he was the exception to the rule whenever Slytherins came up, because his godfather had nothing good to say at all about his House, either past or present. And while Sirius had happily talked with Harry about his friendship with Hermione, he avoided mentioning Draco and Theo completely, even when Harry was talking about them. Yes, it was very clear what Sirius thought about Slytherin. And while he clearly still liked Harry despite of his sorting, Harry was coming to an awful realization that right now, he didn't particularly like Sirius. And worse, he didn't trust him.

It was a desolate Harry that left St. Mungo's with Severus when visiting hours were over. Out of all the outcomes Harry had envisioned when he'd planned to clear Sirius' name, nothing had prepared him for this. He'd expected his plans to either fail, making it impossible for Sirius to get custody of him, or he'd get to live with his godfather, which had always been a dream of his. Now that it was finally happening, Harry wasn't as happy as he thought he'd be. But there was no turning back and at least Sirius still loved him, Harry kept telling himself. Somehow, though, it wasn't helping him feel better.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two: Turmoil**

Severus stalked back to his quarters after enduring two hours of interrogation. No matter what Albus called it – a meeting, a friendly chat – it was a bloody interrogation. First day of the new school year and the tone was set already. Ever since pitching that Muggleborn introduction book at the last board meeting he'd been fielding questions left and right about it, mainly from Albus. It was annoying, to say the least, but he had only himself to blame. He should have known Albus wouldn't let him get away with vague answers.

To be honest, he hadn't expected things to be this easy. Yes, Harry and his friends had thought of a good plan, a plan worthy of a Slytherin. It was their careful planning that had gotten the entire board to easily approve the book without too much hassle. But the questions about the author and the backers, those should have been anticipated by him at least, if not by the children. Harry had, as evidenced by his request that Severus not reveal who was behind the book, yet Severus had thought a simply brush-off by calling it an anonymous benefactor would be enough to stem the questions. It had, from everyone but Albus that was.

He nearly slammed the door to his quarters shut, but he refused to let Albus get to him that bad. He threw himself down in his chair, massaging his head with his fingers in the hope it would help with his headache. It didn't of course, but he was not in the mood to get up and get a pain relieving potion. It would only temporarily help anyway, because Severus knew with a bone deep certainty that Harry and his friends were at this moment coming up with yet another scheme. The thought alone was enough to exacerbate the pounding in his head. Where he'd jokingly thought he should have a wizarding attorney on retainer when he'd heard of their first plan after the fact, he had actually put the attorney he'd used to set things up for the book on retainer. With Fudge sniffing around, Albus getting nosy and the children happily scheming along, Severus just knew something, somewhere was going to go wrong. He just hoped he could get them out of whatever mess they made without too much damage done.

A knock on the door roused him from his thoughts. Severus frowned and sunk deeper in his chair, hoping whoever it was would go away. It wasn't one of his students, they didn't know the entrance to his quarters, and Harry had the password. That left only his coworkers and Severus was not in the mood for more accusing silences and icy politeness. No matter that it had been Albus who'd given Slytherin points at the last minute, _he_ was getting all the recriminations. None of the faculty was happy with the way Hufflepuff's victory had been taken from them at the last moment, a fact Severus could understand and even agree with. But he had hoped they would at least put the blame where it belonged.

Unfortunately for him, it seemed his unwelcome visitor wasn't going away. The knocking continued until Severus stood and opened the door, harsh words already on the tip of his tongue in the hope he could head off whatever tirade the other person had in mind. He came up short, however, when a decidedly cheery Lupin forced his way past him with a bottle of Ogden's and two glasses in his hand. For a moment, Severus debating just leaving, walking away and go find somewhere else to be alone. But leaving the wolf alone in his quarters, leaving _anyone_ alone in his quarters, wasn't something Severus was willing to do. So instead he closed the door and sat down again, downing the drink Lupin had poured him in one go.

"Why are you here?" He snapped the words out, but Lupin just smiled at him serenely.

"Just seeing how you were doing. You were avoiding me, well, everyone really. Although I can't blame you, they're being fairly unreasonable."

"Fairly unreasonable!" Severus exclaimed. "Completely unreasonable you mean. It's not like I had anything to do with Albus' actions."

"Yes, whatever was he thinking?" Lupin asked.

Severus shrugged, not deigning to answer the clearly rhetorical question. Oh, he wasn't a fool, Albus had his reasons for giving out the points in this way. Part of it had been to protect Draco from his mother's wrath, at least a little, and to help Harry get back in the good graces of his housemates. But with Albus there were always plans within plans, he was worse than any Slytherin could ever hope to be when it came to scheming. And Severus knew whatever Albus was planning had something to do with Harry, for 'the greater good' no doubt. Severus just hadn't been able to figure out what Albus was planning this time, although he had the feeling it had something to do with Harry being a Slytherin. He'd hidden it well, but the Headmaster had not been happy with Harry's sorting.

Thankfully the wolf switched subjects and was now complaining about the students forgetting everything he'd taught them last year. Severus poured himself another drink, relaxed for the first time that day. Determinedly, he was _not_ feeling relieved that there was at least one person on the staff that didn't hate him at the moment.

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Only one more day to go and the first week of the new school year would be over. Severus was looking forward to the weekend, not in the least because he could hide from the disdain of his coworkers. To be fair, some of them had thawed considerably from their icy attitudes at the beginning of the school year, but others had not softened at all. Pomona was one, and justifiably so in Severus' opinion. He'd rather she be angry at Albus, but after having the first victory in years for Hufflepuff taken from her in such a way he could at least understand her anger.

Before he could even think about relaxing he'd have to take care of the pile of homework though. He always told himself he wouldn't give out so much homework the first week of class, easing himself back into grading every night. Yet every year he forgot and set far more homework than he wanted to grade. If only the little dunderheads showed they had retained some of their knowledge, maybe he could ease off, but it seemed as if summer holidays emptied out their minds. With a sigh, he grabbed a stack and started.

He didn't get very far, for the fire flared green and Lucius emerged from the Floo. The visit was unexpected, but from the fact that Lucius was taking the time to spell away the soot from his clothes before calmly sitting down across from him, Severus figured it wasn't an emergency.

"How is your houseguest?" he asked.

The Dark Lord's specter had been residing at Malfoy Manor since the incident with the Stone almost two years ago, making life more difficult for everyone there. He'd kept out of Draco's sight, much to the relief of both Lucius and Severus, but that was the only good thing about the situation.

"Finally gone," Lucius answered.

The relief at that was easy to see. Severus knew his friend had borne the brunt of the Dark Lord's presence. Not only was he the marked follower, as opposed to Narcissa, and thus expected to do the Dark Lord's bidding, but Narcissa's torture of him had increased with the Dark Lord's return. Perhaps now his friend would get some respite.

"Any idea where he's gone or what he's doing?"

Lucius shook his head and Severus cursed under his breath. While happy that Lucius was rid of the Dark Lord's presence, not knowing where he was brought other problems. Harry's safety sprang to mind immediately and Severus knew that extra safeguards would have to be placed around the child until they knew what the Dark Lord was up to.

Lucius didn't stay long after having delivered his news. Severus closed down the Floo behind him and with a regretful look at the pile of papers that wouldn't get graded tonight he left for Albus' office. It didn't take long at all for Severus to appraise the headmaster of the situation and once he did, he sat back and waited for Albus' reaction.

"It's unfortunate that we have lost track of him," Albus said. "We'll have to wait and see."

Severus had the feeling Albus knew more than he was saying, but that was something he frequently thought. He waited for another moment, but it seemed Albus was not going to broach the subject on his own. Severus didn't know if the old man merely wanted him to admit to caring for Harry – something Albus seemed to take great pleasure in, as a sign of overcoming his grudge against James, which was not the case at all – or if he truly didn't intend to take action. Choosing not to think the worst of Albus, Severus heaved a sigh and gave in to the inevitable.

"We should put up wards around the Slytherin dorms and keep an extra eye on Harry at all times. The Dark Lord might go after the boy."

"Quite right, I'll put up some extra wards around his dorm tomorrow," Albus said. "And perhaps we shall reconvene the Order, if the Dark Lord is going to be more active we will need to prepare."

Severus nodded in agreement and left Albus to start planning. Yet he couldn't shake the feeling that Albus was holding something back and that whatever it was, it had something to do with Harry. He felt horrible for not fully trusting Albus with Harry's safety, but he had survived too much to discount the disquieting feeling. He'd trust Albus with his own life, but not with Harry's.

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Severus had been looking forward to his lesson with Harry the entire week. They'd set aside Saturday afternoon for working on the Wolfsbane potion and he'd made sure that nothing would disturb the two of them, even going as far as asking Sinistra to watch his Slytherins. With the knowledge that Black had been released from St. Mungo's the day before, he was very aware that it was only a matter of time before Harry would be back under Black's guardianship. Once that happened, Severus would lose Harry. It hurt to even think about, so Severus deliberately set the thought aside as he worked alongside the child, guiding him in making the base for the Wolfsbane potion.

Once things were underway and the base was slowly simmering, Severus broached a subject he'd been thinking about since his talk with Albus on Monday.

"I want to talk about this…organization…of yours," he said.

"We haven't done anything," Harry said hastily.

"Yet," Severus said with a pointed look.

The child blushed and looked down, focusing intently on his potion as if taking his eyes off it for even one moment would ruin it. No matter that it had to simmer for another ten minutes before anything had to be done. It was as Severus thought then, the children were planning something new.

"I understand that you are doing something because you think it is the right thing to do," Severus said. "I commend you for it, you and your friends. But I don't think you really see the possible consequences."

"I do," Harry said, interrupting him. "The others might not, not completely. Hermione certainly doesn't. But I do."

The admission startled Severus. Harry sounded so much older than his thirteen years.

"Do you really?" Severus questioned him.

"I know things could go wrong. I know we're going to push too far, too fast one of these days," Harry said, troubled green eyes meeting Severus' own eyes. "And then things will spin out of control and if I'm lucky people will just get a good laugh out of it. Or maybe they'll see me as the next Merlin or Albus Dumbledore, fighting the good fight. More likely, I'll be painted as either mentally unstable or the next Dark Lord, and I'll be shunned by society. But I _have_ to do this, regardless of the possible consequences."

"Why?" Severus asked, trying to understand. The child truly did understand the possible consequences, far better than Severus had expected him too. "If you know what might happen, what will likely happen, why do you continue this foolishness?"

"Because until it all blows up I can do so much good," Harry answered softly. "Because the consequences of _not_ doing it are so much worse."

With that answer, he turned back to his potion, leaving Severus reeling. The child had sounded so bleak and desolate, so certain that inaction would be worse. Something within Severus' memory stirred, something that would have this all make sense, but it stayed just outside of his grasp. He gave up trying to remember it and focused on the here and now. It was clear Harry was not going to stop his plans, even though his body language screamed his expectations that Severus would forbid him from continuing. So it would be up to him to keep the child as safe as he could.

"I think your organization needs a spokesperson," Severus said. "People are already asking questions after the book, and that will only get worse when you continue whatever it is you are planning next. Think it over and let me know, I might be able to arrange something with the attorney that handled the funds for the book."

Harry's head shot up and surprise made him look even younger than he really was. Young, but not innocent. The luminous smile he got made Severus smile himself. He'd started this day worried he was going to lose Harry to Sirius Black, but now he realized there was a bond between them that Black would have a hard time breaking. Yes, Harry would no longer be _his_ child, no longer be solely his to care for. But that didn't mean he had to stop caring altogether. And come hell or high water, he would keep Harry safe, from Dark Lords and everything else the world could throw at this child.


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: ****This is not beta read. All mistakes are my own.**

**Chapter three: Nightmare From the Past**

Harry, Theo and Draco entered the converted classroom they used as a common room to find a jubilant Hermione setting out snacks and drinks. She hadn't seen them yet and was softly singing to herself and swinging her body to a beat only she heard. The three boys stopped to look at her and Harry couldn't contain a happy smile. Whatever else had gone wrong due to him messing with the timeline, this at least had gone right. He couldn't remember Hermione ever being this carefree and happy, so sure of herself that she could _be_ herself in the original timeline. There'd always been this desperate drive to prove herself, to prove that she belonged and could be useful. It often resulted in lectures and her coming off as a know-it-all. By the time she'd become confident enough to be herself no matter what people would think of her – somewhere around their fifth year, maybe even later – they were fighting Voldemort and happy and carefree was the last thing anybody had been.

"Are we celebrating?" Draco asked, an amused smile on his face.

Hermione gave a little squeak of surprise as she turned around and saw them standing there, a slight blush on her face. But she was also smiling as she answered Draco.

"Yes, we are. We're celebrating the successfulness of your father's law. It's not even been in effect for a year and already it's getting results."

"Really?" Harry asked as he and the others took a seat.

Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, really. Gryffindor has two Muggleborn first years and I talked to them. They didn't get the magic talk early, of course, but they did have a magical sponsor this summer holidays that taught them about the wizarding world, took them to Diagon Alley and a Quidditch game, and the magical sponsor stayed with them for the last two weeks and gave them a bit of magical training so they wouldn't come to Hogwarts completely unprepared."

"Magical training?" Harry asked, curious as to what that meant.

"I'm guessing they got a little crash-course in things most purebloods know," Theo said. "Just small things, like watching someone make a potion and helping to prepare the ingredients, or trying a simple spell with your wand. Most purebloods, and half-bloods too, end up doing some wand magic before they go to Hogwarts. Some more than others, depending on their parents."

"So the law is already helping, even those that are past their first sign of magic," Hermione exclaimed.

"What did they think of the book?" Draco asked.

"They loved it," Hermione said with a big smile. "Isn't that great?"

Harry smiled as he grabbed a chocolate frog and bit off its head. Yes, it was great, more than Hermione could even imagine. It was two steps in the right direction, just that little bit closer to a world where blood didn't matter anymore and where the likes of Voldemort could never rise to such great power.

"So, what's next on the agenda?" Draco said.

He had a wide grin on his face and a wicked gleam in his eyes, and Harry couldn't contain his own grin. It was echoed on Theo and Hermione's face. They were doing something amazing, something great, and nobody even knew it was them. It was a heady feeling and Harry suddenly understood the appeal of politics. For Draco and Theo, who were raised to aspire such power, it must be a dream come true. But Harry knew that they had to be careful, his experiences in the original timeline making him more cautious than he had been in the past. And Severus' concerns about what they were doing and the questions it was raising tempered his Gryffindor side that was all for charging in and doing everything _right now_.

"Well, I had my Wolfsbane lesson with Severus yesterday, and we talked a bit about this," Harry said, drawing the attention of the rest. "When we just supported the law, well, nobody really thought about that. Just a coincidence, yeah?"

"Just like we planned," Theo said, nodding.

"But the book isn't like that. Obviously someone wrote it, and someone put in the money to have it published, and asked to get it approved. So people have been asking questions, lots of questions." Harry took a deep breath, the concerned faces of the others making butterflies appear in his stomach. "Severus said we might have to have a…a sort of spokesperson for S.I.M. that can…."

"Be our mask," Draco finished Harry's sentence when Harry had no idea how to put it.

Harry nodded. That was exactly what the spokesperson should be, a mask so that nobody would look at them as the masterminds behind the plans.

"I think we should try to do without for as long as possible," Theo said. "As soon as they have someone to answer their questions, they'll only come up with more of them."

"But eventually we'll have to give them answers, or they'll keep digging and find out things we don't want them to find out," Hermione pointed out.

Harry was surprised, he'd have thought Hermione of all people would be all for full disclosure, for telling the truth. She must have noticed his surprise, because she explained without him having to ask.

"The law, the book, they're good things. But if the adults knew it was a bunch of children who did this, who wrote the book? We'd get dismissed just for being kids. And we've got more work to do!"

"We'll get to that in a second," Harry said, cutting off what he could see would be another rant about Muggle studies and the non-existent wizarding equivalent. "First, spokesperson. Having one is a good idea, if someone starts to dig too deeply we can use one. But if we wait until then to appoint one, it'll be too late."

"So we need to pick someone to be a spokesperson when we need them," Draco said. "Obviously an adult, preferably with enough clout to keep people from digging any deeper. I'm sure my father wouldn't mind doing it."

"No," Harry said, shaking his head.

Lucius Malfoy couldn't be trusted, and certainly not with this. He was under Narcissa's iron rule, Voldemort's servant, too much of an unknown. But Draco had that mulish look on his face that told Harry he'd better talk fast or his friend would put his foot down and things would get ugly.

"It would be all too easy for someone to make the link from your father to you and us," Harry said. "We'll need someone who's not connected to anyone of us."

"Perhaps Professor Snape could help? It was his idea," Hermione said, ever the sensible one.

Everybody agreed to that idea and with that decided, talk turned to the current Hogwarts curriculum – particularly the deplorable state of Muggle Studies and the absence of Wizarding Studies. Hermione was all for revising the Muggle Studies course after having seen the course book at Flourish and Blotts, but the boys thought that could wait. In the end, it was Theo who managed to get their point across to Hermione.

"We're the Society for the Integration of Muggleborns, right?" he asked. "Muggleborns don't need Muggle Studies to fit in the Wizarding world. It's something that needs to be better, yes, but at least it's _there_. Wizarding Studies doesn't even exist. The new early intervention law and the book will help, but none of those can really replace growing up in the Wizarding world. Wizarding Studies could provide information on things you don't see everyday – wedding traditions, courting rituals, life debts, just to name a few things. Those things aren't covered by a magical sponsor, there just isn't enough time for that."

"He's right," Draco chimed in. "A lot of half-bloods and even some purebloods are forgetting those traditions, the things that makes us wizards."

"The Old Ways," Harry said softly, remembering the phrase he'd heard from an older wizard during one of the many funerals in the months before he came back in time.

Draco nodded, even as Theo looked surprised Harry even knew the phrase. He focused on Hermione, uncomfortable with Theo's speculative gaze. His friend was quiet, but he also saw a lot more than Harry was comfortable with. Hermione had thankfully been convinced that working on getting Wizarding Studies on Hogwart's curriculum was the first thing they should be working at right now, and was eagerly coming up with ideas, so she didn't notice Harry's uncommon knowledge.

"We need to cover births, weddings, burials, maybe etiquette? The booklet in first year really isn't enough and just reading about it doesn't always work, too many nuances to properly explain in a book . Oh, and we could do a segment on non-British Wizarding culture," she said.

Draco had grabbed a quill and parchment and was writing down every idea Hermione came up with, sometimes writing down one of his own when she paused to take a breath. Harry met Theo's eyes and they shared a grin. He was very aware that next year the Triwizard Tournament would be held and S.I.M. would take a backseat to fighting Voldemort. This was the last year they could focus on changing the Wizarding world for the better, undermining Voldemort by eroding the foundation on which he'd built his persuasive arguments. But with all of them working on this, Harry was convinced they could do this.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Harry took slow and steady breaths, trying to brace himself for seeing a dementor for the first time in years. Even if it wouldn't be a real dementor, it would still bring back the nightmare visions of the war. Battles where dementors swept in where always the worst. Injured people got their souls sucked out because they couldn't get away in time, screams echoing over the battlefield and always that horrible cold that seeped down into your bones. He didn't think about the war often, the ritual dampening the memories enough that he could forget most of the time. But sometimes something would trigger a memory and it would feel like it only happened yesterday. Harry figured staring at a dementor would be like that.

Even seeing Neville's boggart take the shape of Severus with Neville's grandmother's clothes didn't do more than bring a slight smile to his face. He saw Remus looking at him and gave the man a wan smile. They'd talked the lesson over in their private session on Monday, where Remus had explained the planned lesson and that he wasn't sure Harry should participate. Just like in the original timeline Remus had been afraid that the boggart would take the shape of Voldemort, but Harry had told him it would probably be a dementor. Although surprised by that, it had been enough to convince Remus to let Harry take a shot at the boggart in class. Originally Harry just wanted to prevent even more talk about his special status in Defense, but now he was wondering if he shouldn't have begged off when he had the chance.

Then, suddenly, it was his turn, as Seamus stepped back from his boggart – a banshee that was voiceless after the Riddikulus spell – and Harry stepped forward. The boggart shifted, but not into the far too familiar form of a dementor. Instead, it formed a nightmarish scene from Harry's memories of the old timeline. An older Hermione, looking older than she was due to the strain of the war and all of the losses, in blood-soaked robes was holding her wand steady at an older Draco Malfoy. Draco's robe was torn, his left arm bare and the Dark Mark stood out starkly against his pale skin. His face was twisted with hate, but there was fear in his eyes. Harry wanted to close his eyes, he knew what came next, but then it was too late as the boggart-Hermione shouted the killing curse and the life went out of the boggart-Draco's eyes.

There was a rushing noise in Harry's ears and he couldn't breathe. Then, suddenly, Remus was in front of him, taking care of the boggart and stuffing it back in the wardrobe. He was aware that the rest of the class was deadly silent and staring at him, but he couldn't look at any of them. Certainly couldn't look at any of them. He was still struggling to breathe, chanting '_not happening this time, not happening this time_' in his head. A warm hand settled on his shoulder and he dimly heard his name being called. The voice was familiar. Remus, his mind supplied. Then everything went black.

When he woke up, he was in the infirmary. For a second he didn't know why he was here, but then it all rushed all back. He must have made a noise, because suddenly Severus was standing over him, gently cupping a hand on his cheek.

"Shh, it's all right, you're in the infirmary," Severus said. "Do you remember what happened?"

Harry nodded. He remembered all too well. His boggart had re-enacted a scene of the war he'd left behind. Draco had killed Ron, who was defending several children, and Hermione had hunted him down on the battlefield and disarmed him. Harry had been fighting his way towards her, but before he could get there she'd already cast the killing curse. It had been the first time Hermione had deliberately killed and the loss of that last bit of her innocence had crushed her spirit. The boggart had truly shown him his greatest fear, and Harry had just been too stupid to realize it was no longer a dementor like in the original timeline. No, he feared the possible future far more, he feared that even with all he'd changed already it would not be enough. He feared that the new friendships he had forged would be destroyed by Voldemort's return and that he would end up fighting those he had once called friend.

"You started hyperventilating and fainted," Severus said. "Remus dismissed the class and brought you here, then called me."

"It's probably all over school by now," Harry said dejectedly.

"The Slytherin's won't say anything, and Remus told the Gryffindors not to mention this," Severus said. "There's no guarantee that they won't, of course, but perhaps their so-called sense of honor will keep their mouths shut."

In other words, by the time he got out of the infirmary, the entire school would be talking about this. He had no idea how he was going to explain his boggart to anyone, let alone how he would face the entire school. They must think he was insane, it would be like fifth year all over again. And Merlin, Hermione and Draco…what were they thinking? Would they even stay his friends after this?

Harry bit his lip in an effort to hold back the tears that threatened, but it didn't work. As the tears began to fall, he was pulled into a hug. He hid his face in Severus' coarse teaching robe and sobbed out the old grief that was attached to the memories the boggart had called up as well as the new grief of potentially losing his friends. It wasn't until he calmed down that he heard what Severus was repeating over and over, whispering in his ear.

"It's going to be all right, child, I've got you. We'll sit down with Draco and Miss Granger, they'll understand."

"Theo too?" Harry asked, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"If you want."

The quiet assurance in Severus' voice allowed him to relax enough to slip into sleep, content in the knowledge that whatever else would happen, there was one person that would stand by his side for sure.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Harry kept a worried eye on the clock, wishing it would slow down. Five more minutes until the end of class, and Severus would bring Draco, Theo and Hermione down to his quarters. After being released from the infirmary the day before, Severus had taken Harry down to his quarters where he'd spent the night. Some judicious use of begging and pleading had convinced the man to let Harry skip classes "just this once, it's Friday anyway", although he had insisted Harry talk to his friends today. Harry was not looking forward to that at all.

The five minutes went by in what felt like mere seconds, and then Severus was there, Draco, Hermione and finally Theo trailing behind him. They all arranged themselves on the couch and the chairs. When everyone was seated an awkward silence fell. Severus looked to Harry, silently urging him with his eyes to start talking, but he had no idea what he could possibly say to his friends. After another minute of increasingly tense silence, Severus spoke up.

"Harry wanted to talk to you all about what happened yesterday. The manifestation of his boggart was quite a shock to everyone and it's understandable that you would have questions."

Harry looked at his friends. Hermione had a wounded look in his eyes. Draco's face was shuttered, a mask drawn up to hide what he was feeling, but it wasn't perfect as anger shone in his eyes. Theo looked more neutral, and it was him that asked the first question.

"Why did Draco have the Dark Mark?"

Harry blew out the breath he'd held in. He'd been working on his story all day and this was a question he knew how to deal with.

"His father…his father was one of Voldemort's followers," Harry began.

"That doesn't mean anything!" Draco shouted, interrupting Harry mid-sentence. "My father is a good man, and I would never… Besides, the Dark Lord is gone."

"No, he's not," Harry said softly. It shocked Draco out of his anger, even as Hermione let out a startled gasp. "That's the problem, he's not gone. Not for good. He's just gathering power and one of these days he'll come back. And I'm afraid…I'm afraid you will be pushed into serving him Draco. And Hermione, Voldemort would want to kill her even if she wasn't one of my best friends." He blinked away the tears that threatened and took a deep breath. "I'm afraid if he'll come back we'll be torn apart, forced to fight each other. I don't want that. I don't want to fight you guys, or see any of you get killed just because you're friends with the boy who lived."

"Oh Harry," Hermione said, as she pulled him in a brief hug. "Everything will work out fine, you'll see."

"I'm not ever going to follow the Dark Lord," Theo said soft but intent. "My parents don't like me for who I am, well, then they can just go fuck themselves! You're my friend and if the Dark Lord does come back, I'll stand with you."

Harry gave him a watery smile, then turned to Draco, anxious to hear his reaction. Draco gave him a haughty look and a sneer, and Harry's heart sank.

"Malfoys bow before no-one, and certainly not for wannabe Dark Lords who were defeated once already," Draco stated imperiously, then ruined the effect by winking.

Harry couldn't help himself, he started giggling. It started off a chain reaction, Hermione letting out peals of laughter, Theo and Draco joining in, and even Severus let out a chuckle. Harry felt light, his friends had just promised to stand by him and he believed them. Maybe this time around things would go better.


	4. Chapter 4

Author's note: This is not beta read. All mistakes are my own.

**Chapter four: Ascension of Mars**

It was late Friday night when the private meeting with Albus was finally over. Severus left the Headmaster's office and walked silently down the hall, not yet willing to go back to his quarters. Severus felt wrung out from all the fancy word twisting he had to do. Albus had been very concerned about Harry's boggart; far too concerned if you asked Severus. So he hadn't mentioned what Harry had let slip during his talk with his friends earlier that day. _"He's just gathering power and one of these days he'll come back."_ How had the child known that? Almost everyone assumed the Dark Lord had been vanquished for good.

Severus knew better, of course, as did a select few others. Albus, Minerva, a few old timers from the Order that knew about the events surrounding Flamel's stone. Plenty of the Dark Lord's followers didn't believe their master to be gone forever either. But none of them, not even Albus, were making that knowledge public – there was no proof and people wanted to believe the Dark Lord was gone for good. So that begged the question how Harry had known. No-one that knew would have told the child.

As Severus continued to wander the silent halls, he let his mind drift to other instances where Harry had more information that he should have had. Somehow he'd known it was Albus who'd left him with those despicable Muggles. That knowledge at least could be explained by him hearing it from his aunt, but knowing Petunia Severus doubted it. The child had also known far too much about Severus, things precious few people knew. Someone must be feeding Harry information, but the question was who, and why? As far as Severus knew, only Albus knew that he was the one to warn Lily and James about the Dark Lord, yet Harry had known about it at the custody hearing. Albus wouldn't have told Harry, nor anyone else, Severus was certain of that. It added to the mystery and Severus felt uneasy about not knowing how Harry had acquired the information. As he allowed his feet to guide him towards his quarters, Severus vowed to keep a closer eye on the child. He was going to get to the bottom of this, he swore.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

A timid knock at his office door pulled Severus' attention away from the rather atrocious essay one of his first years had written. With barely repressed relief he called 'enter' and smiled as Harry came in. One look at the boys face had him immediately concerned, though, as the nervous look couldn't mean anything good. He opened up the hidden door to his quarters and waved Harry through to the living room, where they took a seat. Severus wanted to ask what was wrong, but he knew the child well enough to know silence would loosen his tongue better than any question could.

Harry pulled a crumpled piece of parchment out of bag. The first thing that flashed through Severus' mind was that Black had sent a letter that had upset Harry. He hadn't missed Black's anti-Slytherin comments to Harry during their visit to St. Mungo's. Sure, every time Black had told Harry he was the exception to the rule, but while Black might have missed the despondent look on Harry's face during his tirades against Slytherin, Severus had not. But the child didn't seem upset, merely nervous.

"Could you sign this, please," Harry asked, his voice barely a whisper.

He handed the parchment over to Severus. A quick look allowed him to identify it as the consent form needed for Hogsmeade visits. Severus heaved a sigh. He had no idea why Harry was so nervous about asking this – although he had noticed Harry seemed to have trouble asking for things he needed. An unfortunate side effect of living with the Dursleys for so long. Normally, Severus delighted in giving in to Harry's whishes whenever he actually came out and asked for something. Harry's requests were never unreasonable, and Severus hoped to train him to ask for help by giving him positive reinforcements every time he asked for something. This time he couldn't say yes, no matter how much he wanted to. With the Dark Lord's specter out there somewhere, doing Merlin knew what, Severus wanted Harry inside Hogwart's protective wards.

"Harry," Severus started, and his tone must have given his answer away for the child cringed.

"I know, I know, I shouldn't have asked," Harry said. Then he mumbled: "It was supposed to be different now."

That last comment was not meant for him, Severus knew, but it set all of his instincts on edge. The nervousness, the fact that Harry had not looked at him since handing over the consent form, and then that comment at the end. There was far more going on here than Harry simply not being accustomed yet to asking for things he wanted.

"Harry, you have every right to ask this," Severus said. "And I'm not saying no." Not yet, anyway. Not until he got more information out of Harry. "But I do have some concerns, especially since we currently don't know where the specter of the Dark Lord is."

"So you think it's too dangerous for me to go," Harry said with a defeated sigh.

Severus merely hummed. That was exactly what he was thinking, but he didn't want to admit it yet.

"What did you mean when you said it was supposed to be different now," Severus asked. Harry tensed, but didn't say anything. After a few moments, Severus pressed for an answer. "Harry, did the Dursleys keep you from going on a school trip?"

Harry scoffed. "They kept me from going on any trip. The only time they took me was when Mrs. Figg couldn't watch me, and Uncle Vernon didn't want me to stay home alone. Who knows what I would have done, burned the place down with my freakishness or something. And that trip ended in disaster anyway."

There was bitterness in Harry's tone as he said that. It greatly relieved Severus, because it meant that Harry was finally beginning to truly internalize the fact that he had not been at fault – but that the Dursleys were wrong in their treatment of him. It also sickened him that there was yet one more thing that those animals had kept from Harry.

Without hesitation he summoned a quill and signed the consent form. Harry gasped in surprise and gave him a beaming smile.

"You do not wander around alone, you will be back in time, and you will keep your wand on you at all times, understood?" Severus said sternly. He didn't want his child to do something stupid which might put him in danger.

"I promise," Harry said. Then he threw his arms around Severus' neck. Severus hugged him back, not in the least sorry for changing his mind about this. Harry deserved it. Besides, he'd be shadowing the child from the moment he set foot outside of the castle wards until he was safely back again. Anyone foolish enough to endanger his child would feel his full wrath.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Before Severus knew it, winter was approaching. So far, the term had been quiet. The Dark Lord's specter was still missing, but there had also not been any indication of activity. It was probably the silence before the storm, but Severus was glad of the respite. So far Black had not yet petitioned to have his guardianship of Harry restored, so it looked as if Severus would actually get to spend Christmas with Harry. He was not foolish enough to believe that Black was content to leave Harry with him, but that didn't stop the tiny bit of hope Severus harbored that Harry might stay with him after all. No, the only real concern Severus had at the moment was that Harry and his friends were plotting something, another S.I.M. project they refused to share with him. Whatever it was, Severus knew it was big. Harry had even refused his place on the Quidditch team back, claiming to both Flint and Severus he was too busy. For his own sanity, Severus had decided not to delve into the exact plans. Plausible deniability might be needed, especially with Albus still insistent on knowing every single detail of Harry's life. Severus was getting plenty of practice in artfully answering questions without sharing any information these days.

Tonight, Severus planned to go into the Forbidden Forest to harvest some herbs he needed for his experiments with the Wolfsbane Potion. He'd made some progress, but a true solution was still out of reach. As it was the first night it wasn't storming in two weeks, Severus had donned his cloak and set out. So close to December, the potions master was afraid the coming winter weather of frost and snow would prevent him from harvesting the necessary leaves for his experiments until spring. Unfortunately, his potions budget for research was shrinking rapidly due to the many failed experiments, so he had no choice but to harvest as much as he could himself.

The patch of moonflower plants was a closely guarded secret by Severus. It was very rare for the plant to grow outdoors in Great-Britain, but Pomona refused to grow them in the greenhouses because the plant could rapidly take over inside, choking out all the other plants. This patch, however, was in a sheltered part of the forest, open enough for sunlight to reach it most of the day, and housed a family of fairies which used their own weak form of magic to warm up the plant.

Harvesting some of the leaves was the work of mere minutes, but just as he was ready to leave, a noise had Severus on alert. He turned to face the possible threat, his wand raised so his _lumos_ reached as large an area as it could. This spot in the forest was relatively close to the castle, but fairly far from the path and therefore dangerous. Severus quickly ran through the most common dangerous species in the forest and the necessary defensive spells in his head, while hoping it was one of the more benign species. The creature that stepped into his circle of light fell somewhere between. The black-haired centaur with his chestnut colored body was familiar to Severus, yet his dislike for humans made Severus wary nonetheless.

"Magorian, how are you tonight?"

"I have been worse and I have been better, potions master," the centaur answered.

The greeting was friendly, or as friendly as Magorian ever got, and Severus lowered his wand.

"I was just getting ready to leave," Severus said, knowing the centaurs disliked humans in the forest. It was why he always kept his visits as short as possible – he had no wish to antagonize the herd.

"I am not in the habit of sharing our knowledge with humans, but even we in the forest have heard you have taken Harry Potter in as if he were your own foal," Magorian said. "When he arrived at your school two years ago, the heavens began to speak. Much of it is still unclear, but one thing we do know for certain. Mars has begun its ascent and dark times are coming. It was felt you should know this, so you might prepare."

Without waiting for a reply, Magorian turned and galloped away. Severus was left behind in turmoil. On the one hand, the Dark Lord had started becoming active once more in Harry's first year, this was not news. He also knew there was a prophecy regarding Harry and the Dark Lord, and although he did not know it in its entirety it was clear that it would lead to a confrontation between Harry and the Dark Lord. To have this confirmed, by the centaurs no less, still horrified Severus more than he thought possible. Quickly, he grabbed the leaves he'd harvested and began to make his way back to Hogwarts. Severus suddenly felt the need to check on Harry to make sure the child was fine.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

It was an ordinary day in a fairly ordinary week. The students were more rowdy than normal, but with the Christmas holidays fast approaching Severus had been expecting that. None of the potions he assigned, not even in his N.E.W.T. classes, were of the extremely dangerous to brew variety. And so it was that he was slightly taken by surprise when his Floo turned green and a very pale Lucius stepped out of it. For a moment, Lucius stood as poised and regal as ever, despite the pinched look on his face, but then he seemed to crumble. Severus was by his side just in time to stop his friend from hitting the ground.

Carefully he helped Lucius over to a chair. A few waves of his wand and Severus had a list of injuries. The used of the Cruciatus Curse, together with the Whipping Hex, made it clear this was Narcissa's handiwork – but the injuries didn't stop there.

"I just need a few potions," Lucius said.

Severus pressed his lips together to hold in what he wanted to say. First he'd see to Lucius' health. He quickly strode to his private potions lab, where he removed several healing potions. Lucius chugged them down as soon as Severus gave them to him, and seemed to relax a bit as they worked through his system.

"Don't you think it's time to put our original plan into action?" Severus asked when Lucius was looking a bit better.

"We can't compromise my position with the Dark Lord, not now," Lucius said.

Unsaid went the fact that Severus had firmly declared which side of the war he was on by taking on the care for Harry Potter. Severus knew that Lucius was right in a way, they needed to know what the Dark Lord was planning and Lucius was in a prime position to give them that information. But to see his friend suffer so for it went too far. Perhaps it was because he was a parent now, of sorts, but Severus no longer believed in sacrificing people for the Greater Good.

"You can't do anything if you're dead," he said harshly.

Lucius chuckled, a bitter sound. "She won't kill me. She likes the control too much."

Severus wasn't so sure about that. One of these days, Narcissa would go too far, either by accident or on purpose. The Black insanity that was so apparent in Bellatrix had poisoned the blond woman as well, and Severus didn't trust her to be predictable in any way, shape or form.

"It's a shame we can't just kill her," he muttered.

"I'm not willing to risk it," Lucius answered, a clear warning in his tone. "Surely, you understand, since you are responsible for a child yourself."

Severus couldn't blame him, it was indeed Draco's life that they risked if they killed Narcissa as well as Lucius'. She might be as insane as Bella, but she was also smart. She'd given her personal house-elf, the one she'd brought with her from her childhood home, the order to kill both Lucius and Draco should she die. No matter how natural they made her death seem, her house-elf would follow his mistress' final orders to the letter. And Severus knew they couldn't safeguard Draco, and Lucius himself, against everything the house-elf would do. Unfortunately, the house-elf didn't listen to Lucius at all, and killing the house-elf was difficult due to the creatures own magic, and it would warn Narcissa. No, for now, she was untouchable. But Severus swore he would find a way to free his friend from Narcissa.

"I received a message from Black," Severus said, changing the subject. "He's been released from St. Mungo's and has petitioned to get his guardianship over Harry restored. I assume it won't be long before he gets it, though thankfully his hearing is after the Christmas holidays."

He had known it was coming, but still it hurt. He was determined not to lose the good relationship he had now with Harry, despite Black's anti-Slytherin attitude, but it still would not be the same.

"And you're going to let it go uncontested?" Lucius asked, incredulous."You're truly going to let Black take the child you see as your own?"

"What choice do I have? He has a prior claim," Severus bit out.

"Yes, but he has a history of attacking Harry now," Lucius pointed out. "Besides, do you truly believe Harry is better off with Sirius Black?"

Severus remained silent, because the honest answer was no. No, he did not believe Harry was better off with Black.

Author's note: I have not given up on this series! I will keep working on it, and it will be finished. Updates may be slow, though, as I have little time to write these days.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: ****This is not beta read. All mistakes are my own.**

**Chapter five: Reversal of the Past**

Hogsmeade was the very picture of picturesque so close to Christmas and as Harry walked through it with Draco, Theo and Hermione, he enjoyed seeing the village decked out so festively. Everything was covered in a layer of crisp snow and it all looked so pure. The last time Harry had seen it like this, he'd had too much to worry about to properly enjoy it. His original third year, the visit had been spoiled by the need for secrecy and the revelations about Sirius, fourth year he'd been worried about the tournament, and after that..well, just saying Voldemort was enough to describe those worries. So for the first time ever Harry enjoyed Hogsmeade decked out for Christmas.

It was very cold outside and the foursome made quick work of their Christmas shopping. Honeydukes was so full with students they decided to give it a miss. Instead, they made their way to the Three Broomsticks. It was crowded and noisy, but also warm and they managed to grab a table in the back. Harry kept his eyes on the door until Severus came in. He wasn't surprised, the man had been shadowing him ever since he left the castle. He'd done so on the previous Hogsmeade visit as well, and Harry had only spotted him due to his experience in the war. He didn't mind, not really – he realized it wasn't because Severus didn't trust him. No, the man was honestly trying to keep him as safe as he could, while still allowing him to have a life. And Harry had an awesome Christmas gift for his guardian to thank him for it.

Draco and Hermione, who'd gone to get their butterbeers, came back to the table and Harry turned his attention from Severus to his friends.

"Is everyone going home for Christmas?" Hermione asked.

The three boys nodded, although Draco and Theo looked less than pleased by it. Harry decided it was best to talk about something else.

"So, I talked to Severus about that thing and he said he'd look into it. We should have a name after Christmas," Harry said, alluding to the spokesperson for S.I.M.. He'd learned his lesson on talking about things in pubs where someone could overhear them with the D.A. fiasco.

"That's great," Draco said. "I heard from father the questions haven't stopped yet."

Harry snorted. He hadn't really expected otherwise. People were too nosy when they shouldn't be, and when there was really a conspiracy, like with Sirius being imprisoned without a trial, nobody noticed.

"When we get back from the Christmas holidays we should go to the next phase of our project," Hermione said. "I think we've got enough information now, we just need to make it presentable."

"Then that's what we'll do," Harry said. "Now, no more talk about work, it's too close to Christmas for that."

With that, the conversation shifted to Quidditch, then books and plans for the Christmas holidays. Harry firmly put all thoughts of S.I.M., horcruxes and all other things that could be labeled as work aside and just enjoyed being here with his friends. Tomorrow was another day for worries, but for now he'd trust Severus to keep him safe and just live a little.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Christmas with Severus was almost perfect. The only thing that had marred the day was the present from Sirius and the accompanying note. Of course, neither Harry nor Severus had talked about it then, not wanting it to color their Christmas even more than it already had. And Severus had continued to not talk about it, but Harry couldn't stop thinking about the possible implications. So he did what he always did when he wanted to talk to Severus – he took up a place beside him in the potions lab, starting a potion of his own brewing.

"Severus, about Sirius' present…What do I do with it?"

"Seeing that it is a broom, I should think you fly on it," Severus answered.

Harry rolled his eyes. That was not what he meant and Severus knew it.

"I've already got a broom, though," Harry said.

And that was the whole problem with Sirius' gift. Harry had a great broom, only received last year, as a gift from Severus. And now a Firebolt from Sirius. He wasn't even playing Quidditch anymore, but choosing one broom over the other felt like choosing between Severus and Sirius, which he didn't want to do.

"Harry, the Firebolt is a better broom, just new on the market. It's also an apology from Sirius and a replacement for the broom he inadvertently destroyed. So I suggest you fly it when you want, although it's probably easier to keep it here at home since your other broom is at Hogwarts. Next year you can take the Firebolt with you."

That all sounded so logical and Harry didn't know why he'd been making it into a problem. Oh, right, because the real problem was the note Sirius had sent with the broom. It had wished him a merry Christmas and had said Sirius and he would spend the next Christmas together.

"Is Sirius getting better? I mean, Sirius wrote we'd spend the next Christmas together, so he seems to think so."

Severus sighed and actually put down the knife he was using to slice the crocodile hearts, which was enough to make Harry stop what he was doing as well and turn his full attention on the other man.

"Sirius has been released from St. Mungo's, but that alone is not enough to get custody back. He's petition to have his guardianship of you restored and there will be a hearing after the Christmas holidays," Severus said.

Harry froze. Sirius was better? And wanted him back? Why hadn't anybody told him? He wanted to be angry at Severus for keeping it a secret, but the nervous nausea rolling inside of him now made that difficult. He loved Sirius, no doubt about it, but his prejudice against Slytherins hurt, even though his godfather always said Harry was the exception. But Draco and Theo weren't bad either, just because they were Slytherins. Most of his house wasn't. And what about Severus? He liked the potions master, but with Sirius' hatred towards Severus, Harry figured there was no way he'd be allowed anywhere near the man except for in school.

"Harry, are you alright?" Severus asked.

"I'm fine," Harry answered automatically.

"If you don't want Sirius to be your guardian, I'm sure there are other options for the court to consider," Severus said.

Harry shrugged his shoulder. He didn't know if he wanted to go with Sirius. He loved his godfather, dreamed of living with him, but reality wasn't anything like what he had expected. And that wasn't even counting the attack. He was just confused right now, he didn't know what he wanted, so he kept silent and turned back to his prep work.

Severus watched him for a while before going back to his own work. Harry gratefully embraced the silence as he focused on his potion, letting it push all thoughts of Sirius and guardianships away. If he was going to lose this, lose working alongside Severus, he'd enjoy it while he could.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Harry had never been more glad to have a S.I.M. meeting scheduled after class. It was the first Thursday after the Christmas holidays, and just this morning Sirius had stood in front of a court to ask for his guardianship rights over Harry back. It should have been a simple meeting, with Sirius providing prove he was cured and that would be enough to reinstate him as Harry's guardian. But nothing in Harry's life could ever be easy. Severus had called him into his office during lunch and informed Harry Sirius did not have guardianship back yet, because Severus himself had petitioned the court to remain Harry's guardian. Harry'd had no warning this was coming, and had gotten no explanation beyond "I think this is best for you" from Severus. So now he was confused and torn between two people who wanted him. So for now, he was choosing to ignore it all and the S.I.M. meeting would take his mind off things.

Together with Theo and Draco Harry walked to the abandoned classroom they'd turned into their shared common room. They were almost there when they turned into a corridor to find Hermione on her knees gathering papers, along with another boy in Gryffindor robes. It looked like everything Hermione had been carrying in her bag was spread out on the floor. The three boys walked up to them, intending to help, but Harry paused as the boy looked up. Now that he saw the boy's face, Harry recognized Colin Creevey. His eyes went round, a look of awe on Colin's face as he saw Harry. All Harry could see was the face of Colin after he'd been killed at fifteen, just because he'd followed Harry out to battle instead of going back to Hogwarts when Hogsmeade had been attacked during a weekend the students had been there.

"What happened?" Theo asked, as he bent down to pick up some of the papers.

"Nothing," Hermione mumbled, while she hid her face behind her hair.

"It wasn't nothing, Hermione," Harry said, knowing her well enough to know when something was wrong. "Now what happened?"

The answer, though, didn't come from Hermione, but from Colin.

"Ron cast a tripping hex at her, and when she fell he followed up with a spell that ripped her bag so everything spilled out," Colin said. "He does stuff like that to her all the time."

"Is that true?" Draco asked.

Hermione nodded, looking up now. They could see she'd been crying.

"Fucking Weasley," Draco grumbled, picking up Hermione's bag to look at the damage.

"Just let it go, guys," Hermione said, "there's nothing you could have done. He's just a bully."

By now, all of Hermione's have been gathered and Draco's managed to repair her bag. Hermione's started to put things back, although Harry noticed it wasn't near as organized as she usually did. He was still in shock about Colin's revelation that Ron has been bullying Hermione – shock and a whole lot of anger, to be honest. He'd always considered Ron his friend, but Harry remembered his pettiness, his jealousy and the nasty comments that had driven Hermione crying into a bathroom with a troll as well. Harry himself had felt Ron's anger when he'd been branded a traitor just for being sorted into Slytherin. Ron had a lot of growing up to do, and Harry knew he could be a good man, had been a good man before he died. But with this, Harry let that last bit of hope that maybe he could be friends with Ron again die. Because right now, Ron was nothing but a bully.

"Hey, uh, Harry, can I have your autograph?" Colin asked, drawing Harry's attention back to the present.

He was standing now, holding a stack of papers belonging to Hermione to his chest, and looking at Harry with hero-worship in his eyes. But all Harry could see was a dead Colin, chest sliced open by a cutting curse, lying on the muddy street of Hogsmeade, there because of his hero-worship of Harry.

"No," he snarled.

Colin flinched and ducked his head. He mumbled a sorry, then gave the stack of papers he held to Hermione before quickly walking away towards Gryffindor tower. Hermione frowned at him.

"That wasn't very nice, Harry," she said.

Harry honestly couldn't care less, better to be thought of as an asshole than lead Colin to his death a second time. But while he just shrugged his shoulders, not wanting to argue with Hermione and not being able to explain anyway, Theo came to his defense.

"Oh, come off it, Hermione," he said. "Harry's entitled to not get harassed for autographs and pictures all the time. If he does it once, they'll never leave him alone."

Much to Harry's surprise, Hermione took the rebuke without further comment. And as they were walking to last bit to their common room together, Harry shot Theo a thankful look.

Once they're in their common room, the door locked behind them, Harry caught them up on the latest news. For one, the fact that Severus has filed for guardianship along with Sirius. Draco and Theo are surprised, Hermione less so. Harry still preferred not to think about it, so he quickly moved on to the next bit of news.

"Severus talked to the lawyer he hired to help us with publishing the book and he's agreed to be the front-man for S.I.M. if it becomes necessary. He doesn't know who's involved, apart from Severus, of course, but apparently he can hide behind attorney-client privilege if someone tries to compel him to say who hired him."

"That's great," Draco said. "Does that mean we can move on with the plan now?"

"Yes, with this point crossed off, we can go forward," Hermione said, while rooting around in her bag. "Oh, bother, I can't find the to-do list we made before the holidays."

"Here, we can share," Draco offered.

Hermione accepted the offer with a smile, sliding closer to Draco so they could share the parchment easily. And with that, the meeting is really off. They'd made a list of things they felt should be taught in a Wizarding Studies class and now they were working on making a curriculum. Five years of things that were absolutely needed, and two years of extra's should anyone want to go on with it after their OWLs. Hermione pouted as her idea of looking at foreign wizarding cultures was relegated to the NEWT course, but even she had to admit that learning British wizarding culture was more important.

At the end of the meeting, they were nowhere near done, but they'd made a good start. Hermione was first out the door, and when Theo and Harry made to follow, Draco held them back.

"I think there's one more thing we need to add to our own to do list," he said.

"What's that?" Theo asked.

"Making sure Weasel and his cronies won't touch Hermione again."

Harry nodded in agreement, because yes, the bullying had to stop. But right now he didn't dare open his mouth to actually say so, afraid that if he did he'd start laughing and never stop, because the irony of Draco coming to Hermione's rescue against Ron was just too much for him. Talk about role-reversal – what a little change in the timeline couldn't do.

When he got himself under control again and trusted himself enough to open his mouth without laughing, Harry just smirked and said: "He's deadly afraid of spiders."

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

Sneaking into Gryffindor tower during the evening meal together with Draco and Theo wasn't too difficult. They'd been very careful to make sure all the Gryffindors were actually at the meal before sneaking in. Pranking Ron by spelling all of his clothes so that if he'd wear them he'd see a spider out of the corner of his eyes every few minutes, hopefully freaking him out and keeping him worried enough that he wouldn't have time to bully Hermione, had been a little more difficult. But a solid week of researching to find the right spells and some practicing in their dorm had paid off. Sneaking out, however, they'd hit a little snag.

"What are you doing?"

Neville Longbottom, chalk-white at finding three Slytherins in his dorm, was standing in the door opening. He was shaking slightly and had his wand gripped so tightly his knuckles were turning white. But despite looking like a shouting "boo" would send him feeling, Harry could see the brave and capable man he would someday become standing before him. He made a quick decision to tell Neville the truth.

"We're pranking Ron because he's been bullying Hermione," Harry said.

Neville blinked, taking that in. Draco hissed "What are you doing?" to Harry, who was waiting for Neville's response and therefore didn't answer Draco.

"He's been doing that since first year," Neville said.

Harry shrugged. "We only found out last week. And then by accident. She told us to let it go."

"Strange way you Slytherins have of letting things go," Neville said, a hint of humor showing through now that he was calmer.

"Never said we agreed to let it go," Harry answered.

Neville smiled and stepped aside. "You'd better get out of here, before the first people are done with dinner."

Draco and Theo looked from Harry to Neville and back again, before deciding to just go with it and leave while they could. Harry dipped his head in thanks and went after them. When he walked past Neville, he whispered a soft thanks.

They made it out of the tower without any further problems, and when questioned by Draco and Theo about what happened exactly Harry just shrugged his shoulders. But he knew, deep down, that he'd just made an ally that could mean the difference between losing and winning the war. Because he hadn't forgotten Neville sacrificing his life in order to destroy a horcrux and that was the kind of man Harry wanted by his side when things started to go wrong.

HPHPHPHPHPHPHPHPHP

By the time January turned into February, their newest S.I.M. plan was well on its way to being complete. They had a curriculum for all the years, they even had a list of people qualified to teach the course, and now they were working on how to get the plan before the board of governors and accepted without giving themselves away.

They were bandying about ideas, Hermione writing down the ones that seemed promising. She had to write fast to keep up as Theo and Draco revealed themselves to be a font of information on the board members and were thinking up ways to get them onboard, with Harry chiming in now and then. The soft curse Hermione uttered when her quill tip broke didn't even register, but the shriek she let out when she opened her bag did. All three boys had their wands out, Harry fastest of all, in response.

"What happened?" Harry asked, putting his wand away as Hermione let out a giggle.

"Oh, there was a beetle in my bag, it flew out when I opened it. It must've crawled in there during Herbology," she said. "It startled me, that's all."

She grabbed a new quill and got the boy's discussion going again as she asked about Griselda Marchbanks position on wizarding culture. No one gave the beetle a second thought, as Draco explained Marchbanks was surprisingly forward thinking and modern for someone as old as she was.


	6. Chapter 6

**Way back in 2008, when I was a young and foolish author of fanfiction, I started a Harry Potter fanfic. Worse, I started a series. And I began posting it while it was a WIP. The first two stories in the series are finished – the first took me two years, the second a little over a year. I started this third story in 2012, but in the mean time my writing skills had greatly improved. I'd also begun to get involved in other fandoms and had many new and shiny ideas for fics. Since beginning the story, I have struggled to write chapters for it, despite having the story (and series) completely plotted out. It's become a chore instead of a joy and I often find excuses to not write on it, instead spending my time writing other stories. It's become time to admit to myself: it's not getting finished.**

**I have debated long and hard with myself and with other on whether to leave this series up, eternally unfinished, or to take it down completely. In the end, I have decided to leave it up. This 'chapter' contains my detailed notes on how I had planned for this story to go, as well as a basic summary of the other parts of the series I had planned, so there's some sort of conclusion to the story and the series for everyone reading this.**

**I hate unfinished things, and I am very sorry that this fic and this series will never be finished. I have learned my lesson and learned it well - I never, ever post WIP stories anymore. Unfortunately, for this story that knowledge is a little too late to be of use. So once again, I'm sorry to all the faithful readers out there that this will never be finished. It has been your reviews that have pushed me to even get this far. Thank you for all the kind words and encouragement over the years.**

A Time of Choice - final chapters outline (please note these are my raw notes, unedited and unbetad)

Chapter 6 Severus POV: Fighting the Good Fight

1. January still: Severus decides to petition for guardianship after talking about it with Albus (against), Minerva (against) and Lupin (surprisingly for). Show conversation with Lupin.

2. Beginning February: Article Skeeter about plans Harry and co. appears, things go nuts. Severus has to enlist both Lucius and Albus to shush her up. Is helped by Harry's news she's an illegal animagus. Yet that fuels his suspicions.

3. Fudge appears and tries to blackmail Snape into getting him access to Harry. Note that the house had closed ranks around Harry, Draco and Theo, and even to Severus' great pleasure Hermione; that Rita's second article had a much milder tone where she inferred Harry was just trying to learn more about the Wizarding world along with his muggleborn friend and that Draco and Theo had altruistically helped, with no mention being made about making the course a school-wide thing. After the second article attitudes of the other houses had thawed considerably, although it wasn't completely back to normal yet.

4. Week later: around 7 February: Lupin is fired for being a werewolf, Snape and Lupin talk; Severus is pretty sure Lupin was fired because of Severus' actions with Fudge – his way of maybe taking away an ally

Chapter 7 Harry POV: Defender

1. Around end Feb (21st). Moody arrives as a teacher, Harry doesn't trust Moody, even after checking the Map. Severus learns of this and takes over extra defense lessons. Theo shines here as he staunchly stands behind Harry in defense lesson – later on "you're the only one who sees me as me" Harry "But Hermione and Draco do too" "no, they both see Theodore the Pureblood heir far too often still, exactly the thing I don't want to be! To you I'm just Theo" "Defending me too much in public can be dangerous to you" "I don't care, Harry. I'll stand by you. Always." Harry thinks Theo would have made a great Hufflepuff with his loyalty, a great Gryffindor with his staunch support which is courageous, and he's got the brains and book knowledge of a Ravenclaw. He's in Slytherin because he keeps himself wrapped in layers of "invisible" but he's now letting Harry see the core of steel Theo possesses, and Harry recognizes it for the honor it is. ALSO: Ron still jumpy, even though the spell had worn off.

2. Harry asks Severus to teach him Patronus Charm. Learns Snape's charm (?). His own Patronus has changed! Into representation Severus.

3. Moody tries to seek out Harry, who does crazy things to avoid him, Theo helps a lot – behaves a bit Gryffindorish?

4. Harry walks into Trelawney, who makes prophecy she made in third year. Only it's March, not June! Voldemort upping his timeline?

5. Harry goes to Severus about prophecy. Severus tries to talk to Harry about the custody battle.

Chapter 8 Severus POV: Phoenix Rising

1. Severus frets about prophecy and Harry's reluctance to discuss the custody battle.

2. Order Meeting at Grimmauld Place, where we see a mix of old and some new. Tension Sirius and Severus, Lupin in between. Severus elects Shacklebolt as a prospective member. Albus charges him with recruiting him.

3. Recruitment of Shacklebolt.

4. Courtroom scene, dragging up of pasts. (2nd time courtroom, first was monologues about why you were suitable, this time monologue's and defense on why other not suitable) Court decides to hear Harry at next meeting; Severus thinks about pulling his petition so as not to put Harry on the spot, but can't bring himself to do so.

5. Wolfsbane potion improvement session: takes extra risk because still guilty Lupin. Potions explodes, Severus hurt pretty severe.

Chapter 9: Harry POV: Broken Hearts

1. Harry gets called to infirmary, Severus there. Albus comforts him. Severus awakes, says he'll be fine, sends Harry to bed. Harry sneaks back in with Invisibility Cloak, Albus catches him, lets him stay for a little while.

2. Moody yet again tries to seek Harry out. Harry once again avoids him, this time with help Neville.

3. SIM meeting, Harry brings Neville. Hubbub of articles ebbed away, tentative plans of starting up again. Safe path this time: improving Muggle Studies. Hermione's made a long, long, long list of errors. Neville says he can get his gran to do something if Hermione gives him the list. Hermione advises to hire a Muggleborn for the course. Draco says if they focus on making the course better, it will aid Wizards in not getting noticed by the Muggles, which his father will support.

4. Courtroom scene: Harry has to choose. Choses Severus, Sirius heartbroken, vows to regain Harry's trust.

Chapter 10 Severus'POV: Suspicion

1. Severus celebrates his victory.

2. Severus receives several death threats, including one from Moody. Albus improves the wards on Spinner's End.

3. Holidays start for Harry, but during end of year teacher meeting, Severus is informed of TriWizard Tournament. Insists in being involved so he can keep an eye on safety issues.

4. July 31st: Harry gets Quidditch World Cup tickets from Sirius for his birthday and learns Sirius actually asked permission from Severus first! Severus says yes – surprising Sirius – but says he wants to go to and there will be no overnight stay due to safety concerns. Sirius admits to having four tickets, one for himself, one for Harry, one for Severus, and one for a friend of Harry. Harry picks Theo – surprising Severus as he'd expected Draco or Hermione to get top billing. But obviously something has shifted inside the group, and he knows not what.

5. Aug 23rd: Harry woke up with his scar hurting. Severus notifies Albus of this per Patronus.

6. Aug 25th: Quidditch World cup end in riot, Severus takes Harry to safety, who seemed to expect it. He's now certain something is going on, starts to actively search for explanation!

7. Severus takes Harry to the Hogwarts Express. Sirius is also there. Severus fears what The Dark Lord is up to and what it will mean for fourth year and is concerned about TriWizard Tournament, Karkarof in specific.

General outline of the rest of the series

4. When Time Goes Wrong

Summer: Harry prepares to face Voldemort at the end of the TriWizard tournament

Harry talks to Sirius, who tells him he understands and also tells him a bit about where his prejudice comes from (his own home situation). Harry asks about Narcissa, Sirius warns she's dangerous because her psychosis is so much better hidden than Bellatrix's. This story focusses on the Triwizard Tournament. Harry is counting on getting chosen as fourth champion again, as he needs Voldemort resurrected in order to kill him, he can't as long as Voldemort is a specter. He hadn't counted on Severus Snape fighting like a lion protection its cub, trying to keep Harry safe by keeping him out of the tournament. In the end, Harry has to ask Severus to stop fighting it, causing Severus' suspicions to rise. Harry's strategy is to win this time, so he'll reach the cup alone. Slytherin house closes rank around Harry when his name is drawn, as he pretends it was a ploy of him to get into the tournament. Hermione is at first angry, Draco is proud and only Theo sees the truth. He does win, but Krum gets killed in the maze, which Harry doesn't find out about until he gets back. Also, Harry starts a 'relationship' with Pansy, so her parents might reconsider the marriage contract they negotiated for her. But, in actuality, he's starting to notice people in a 'more-than-just-friends' way, and it's not just girls he's noticing! Severus' suspicions go towards Harry being a Seer or something when he notices Harry is not surprised at all about anything the tournament brings. Peter Pettigrew is there, we learn what happened to him. Karkaroff recognized him and sent him to the Dark Lord, Karkarof is the one who gets Harry to DL. on orders of Crouch.

Draco likes Hermione, but Krum does too. Krum smooches with Hermione, Draco's in a snit. In the end, Hermione is heartbroken when Krum gets killed. Draco is feeling guilty, for he wished the Durmstrang boy dead. He tries to comfort Hermione.

Harry has his first crush on Oliver Wood. He keeps it a secret, not only because of the fact that Oliver is a boy, but he's also a Gryffindor. Thinks it's a one-time thing. (Still thinks Cho's beautiful!)

5. Emotional Times

Harry's depressed because despite everything he's done, there's still someone death. Snape presses for answers (his suspicion reaching an all time high after the Triwizard Tournament), and Harry comes clean about the time-travel. They go after the ring. Also, the secret of the diary comes to light, and brings the revelation that Lucius is a spy (and yes, that's what Lucius, Severus and Dumbledore cooked up in The Other End of Time).

The students of Slytherin rally behind Harry during the laster campaign of the Ministry. The terrorism of Umbridge against Slytherin and Harry and Hermione, aided mostly by Gryffindor, gets so bad the Slytherin's leave the school and take refuge in Malfoy Manor. Draco tells Harry and co why Narcissa can't be killed/get rid of. Lucius has to take a stand against Narcissa together with Severus, and some unexpected help from Harry! Severus is forced to kill Narcissa, Lucius is heartbroken as he thinks Narcissa's elf will have killed Draco; Kreacher comes to Harry, who's there as well, with Narcissa's elf dead in his hands; Harry'd told him to protect Draco should it become necessary. Also, Harry freaks a bit about his bisexuality when he falls for another boy, until Lucius Malfoy of all people talks about it with him. It seems that the Wizarding World has some different ideas of homosexuality than the Muggle World. Harry has some snog sessions with Blaise Zabini. Harry starts to notice Theo in a more than just friends way. The Gaunt ring hiding place: the ruins of the Gaunts' house gets destroyed.

6. Time Draws Near

Umbridge is gone, the truth about Voldemort is out, and the Wizarding World is in remorse about what they did to their Chosen One. Harry's not buying it, knowing how fickle the public can be, and continues to prepare with his allies (read: the Slytherins). He starts his search for the Horcruxes in earnest (already started in fifth year by Snape with ring). Problem is how to get inside Gringotts vault. But the Order and Dumbledore are not content to let matters rest and Harry continually has to evade their 'help'. Harry also falls in love with Theodore Nott, but doesn't want to start anything. However, with his love interest coming with him on the Horcrux hunt, there's no avoiding it. Draco and Hermione become an item during the Horcrux hunt. Draco declares he'll follow his own path and that Pureblood prejudice is 'out' and his father can just deal with it. Also, the Weasley twins, due to being connected to the Order, finally find out what happened to the Marauder's Map they lost in Harry's second year. Hufflepuff's cup hiding place: the Lestranges' vault at Gringotts gets destroyed.

7. Timeless Battle

The Order and Harry's Slytherins start to work together. Albus finds out about the time-travel. Harry finds the last of the Horcruxes, and the meaning of the power the Dark Lord knows not (natural Legillimency). In the Final Battle, Ron is almost killed. After the battle, he approaches Harry (who saved him) and offers his hand in friendship. Harry realizes that while it's nice to have Ron as a friend again, he's got enough friends and family for it not to matter so much anymore. In this story, Harry gets into a steady relationship with Theo. Before the Final Battle, after someone close to Harry dies (I haven''t decided who yet(Remus or Sirius)), he tries to push his boyfriend away, but said boyfriend is having none of it.

last horcrux is killed: Nagini, then Voldemort. Harry himself (no longer horcrux b/c of time ritual!)


End file.
